Pat Durham

MANSFIELD — One of the area’s most storied basketball programs will hand the whistle to a new boss next season.

Pat Durham, 70, has announced his retirement after four years as St. Peter’s boys coach.

“It just felt like it was time,” Durham said. “I’ve got a couple of health concerns, nothing real serious. I didn’t feel like I had the drive and the energy to coach the way I want to coach.”

The news was greeted with sadness by the Spartans athletic department.

“With regret, St. Peter’s has accepted the resignation of head boys’ basketball coach Pat Durham,” athletics director Tim Failor said. “In 2010-11, Pat took over a St. Peter’s program in turmoil and has returned the Spartans to competitiveness and respectability.”

St. Peter’s went 40-51 in Durham’s tenure, and finished this season with a 13-11 mark, 7-3 in the Mid-Buckeye League, the school’s first season in a conference.

The 2013-14 campaign figured to be a special one. But the Spartans’ plans were blindsided when 6-foot-10 senior center Cole Phillips was injured in the season opener. The 280-pounder suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee at South Central. To that point in the game he’d already registered 15 points, 16 rebounds and six blocked shots.

“He was certainly going to average a double-double,” Durham said. “We adjusted pretty well without him, but his replacement was 6-1 and we just didn’t have a defensive presence at the basket.”

Still, the Spartans enjoyed a renaissance under Durham. Prior to his arrival, St. Peter’s had gone through three coaches in three years. The team won three games before his first winter as the head coach.

“In his four years at the helm he has brought back winning seasons to Spartan boys’ basketball,” Failor said.

Durham’s best St. Peter’s team was the 2012-13 edition, which registered a 16-8 mark highlighted by a nine-game winning streak. That run was the longest stretch at the school since the 2003-04 district championship squad.

“I just tried to offer a little stability, implement a system,” Durham said. “I just tried to do the things I’ve done forever. The kids and the coaches bought into it and we were able to gradually restore some respectability.”

Durham was also a head coach for five years at Clear Fork and 16 years South Central. He fashioned a fine overall career record of 346-204. He hopes to see more of his family, including a daughter and grandchildren who live in Hawaii.

“He is an area coaching icon and is well known and respected throughout the state,” Failor said. “Pat Durham is a fine human being. St. Peter’s will miss him on our bench. We wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors.”

St. Peter’s has not been back to the state tourney since 1990, and has not won a district title since 2004. Yet its rich history makes it one of the most high-profile small-school jobs in Ohio.

The Spartans have reached eight state tournaments and won two state championships (1968 and 1978). The program lived in Columbus during the 1970s, reaching the Final Four in 1970, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1990.

The Spartans new coaching search will begin immediately. But Failor said it’s too early to establish a timetable in the transition to a new regime.

“We’ve received a lot of interest already, but we have a long way to go in the process,” Failor said.